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I have a fully grown BN who doesn't run away at all, though he used to hide a lot when I first got him. I also made a cave where he could hide from other fish but I could still see him through the glass. My newest female BN is always hiding whenever I get near though. Hopefully she'll get more...

Did you put all these fish in at once? You should add fish very slowly...

I put 4 platies (3 females and a male, apparently this is a good ratio) in my Fluval Uno 500 to cycle it. This was on the advice of my lfs. They have been thriving for a few weeks now and the levels are settling out. The fish all eat well and I think one is pregnant. I was told not to do any big...

I have 4 platies in a Fluval Uno 500. They're fantastic little fish. My lfs recommended them for cycling for that tank. Ideally more space would be better but they're very healthy happy little fish and as long as you don't overfeed and you keep the bottom clean the water levels seem to be fine...

I'm sorry that one sentence caused such a fuss. I wasn't suggesting it was a good idea to add melafix when there is no infection, I was trying to illustrate that it is mild and does not harm other fish. I fully understand the implications of adding treatment regularly when it is not required. I...

As far as I'm aware, it doesn't have an affect on the biological filter. I tested my water a while after using Melafix and the levels are all fine. Think it says on the bottle that it's ok for the biological filter. I used it in with the whole tank as well and everything is fine. Some people...

Then the bottle lies. I was recommended it as a mild herbal treatment for the splits and possible fin rot in my tank. Worked wonders on the guppy's tail but now one of my bristlenoses appears to have white spot. Apparantly Melafix is only good for 'mouth' fungus, not any other types. For fin...

Thanks for your help everyone. I have checked and checked and there is no blood staining, white stuff or anything like this. There's nothing spiky in the tank that they could tear themselves on and all the decor has been there for ages without anything like this happening. Why I'm worried is the...

Hi, I have one female guppy, 2 small bristlenoses (about 1.5cm each) and one slightly larger bristlenose (about 5cm). I looked in the tank yesterday evening and one of the baby's has two splits in his tail, like someone cut it with scissors. The guppy also has a split like this right through her...

I decided against buying the breeding pair because I thought, though it's more difficult, it would be more interesting to buy some babies, let them grow up and then hopefully breed them. So, I bought three baby bristlenoses from one of the local fish shops in the hope that they aren't all the...

Good to know that I'm thinking the right way here; the filter supplied with my tank is tiny so I was thinking of replacing it for a much larger one as my bristles make a lot of mess as it is! So, it can be done in a smaller tank, just needs good filtration and frequent maintenance? Also, should...

The larger of my two bristlenoses loves sitting in the current with all his bristles getting blown about. He also sits on the filter itself (I assume he's after the algae). So I guess they just like the current as we've got an airstone as well as a pump in our tank as well. Ours definitely...

Hi, I'm looking to purchase a breeding pair of brown bristlenoses and wanted to know what the minimum size tank you would recommend them to be in, they are 4" and 3.5" in length. Also, would another baby bristlenose, not one of their offspring, be ok living with them (he's only 1.5")? Thank you!

And still this discussion continues to be about the size of my tank... The local fish store I bought him from has always been very concerned about the way their fish are looked after and the staff are incredibly compassionate towards both customers and fish. In no way would they have knowingly...

My parrot fish is exactly like this. I'm starting to think he might be a she now... I was cleaning his tank the other day and he kept dive-bombing my hand. He's always throwing stones around the tank and attacking the plastic condensation sheet at the top of the tank. They really are great fish...

That's what I thought. Well, I'm not at home at the moment but I've got my mum looking after my fish for me and she phoned to say that he's been fine! Thank you valleyrich and fish_fetish65, you've really put a smile on my face saying that you like Jake! Everyone seems to fall in love with him...

I went to visit my LFS, with the video that was taken of Jake and they said that he doesn't look to be in distress. They said it might be that the hot weather is affecting him so they advised that we turn the lights off in the tank, which seems to have helped! The tank has gone down in...

I was told that BNs are fine with parrot cichlids but I've never tried them. I had a common pleco in with my parrot and he ended up dead... It really depends on the nature of the parrot and often it's not recommended to put much smaller fish in with them.

Being able to see his reflection was something I considered as, at the right angle I can see his reflection so he probably can too! I'm still not quite sure about the twitch, he's doing it quite a lot, but we've now got two good videos of him so when it cools down a bit here I'll take it into...

I'm a little hurt that after asking for help to ensure that my fish doesn't come to any harm my thread has simply been hijacked by an argument about whether or not my fish is in the wrong size tank or not. This is not what I asked and I now simply feel that I'm doing something wrong by keeping...

I certainly wouldn't keep him in a 30g tank if I could help it, nobody ever informed me how big a parrot fish would grow, what their nature was like or anything else. The lfs had been fantastic in the past and I had no reason to believe that they were wrong when they advised me what to buy. I'm...

My boyfriend managed to film Jake having one of his twitchy moments. The film is about a minute long so try not to get too bored, we couldn't find a way to cut the film down! Any ideas now? He's really starting to worry me. Click here to watch twitchy-fish

That seems quite a lot of fish for a 20g tank? I personally wouldn't keep that many fish in there but if you're going to have a plec you need to make sure you get one that's only going to stay small. Have a look in one of the sticky threads at the top on small plecs to give you some ideas.

I'm really surprised to hear people having so much luck with BPs and other fish. I've tried keeping mine with a plec and it killed him, he killed his own mate in the fish shop and every shop we've asked about them has said that you can't keep many fish at all with BPs because, depending on the...

Well the tank certainly isn't overstocked, it contains 2 fish and the second one is only a recent addition. He probably does need a larger tank but there's no possibility of upgrading it at the moment due to space so until then...

Thanks for that - jake only seems to have grown about 2" in the last 2-3 years so hopefully he'll take his time getting anywhere near that big!

Well we plan to upgrade the tank relatively soon anyway, but Jake isn't anywhere near 8" yet so he's alright at the minute. We were actually advised what size tank to get and the fish shop is usually really good, I guess some places just differ from others.

Yep a guppy got caught in my filter as well. We used to own a shark that hid one inside a tunnel too, so they do have a habit of... disappearing.

Whether it's exactly true or not I don't know but I was told you can tell by the shape and length of the dorsal fin - if it extends past the tail and is pointy then it tends to be male and it's shorter and more rounded on the female. Someone will need to verify this but that's how I was told to...

You say the BN is the boss? Do you mean he's agressive or just likes his territory? I would have to agree with furryrabbit, my BN hasn't attacked my guppy and I don't think he could eat a frog!

I bought a BN about 5 or 6 weeks ago and he was probably just under an inch when I got him, no bristles and hardly any markings. Since then he has grown to about 1.5" and has loads of bristles and lots of markings! He seems to be growing pretty fast, ever week there's more bristles on his nose...

I don't know that you could call me a collector but they are my favourite fish! I used to have one called Billy who I think was a common plec but he died due to water problems (I lost about 4 fish at the time :( ). I then had one for about 2 years called Spud who grew to around 6" (again...

Well... they've only recently started being imported into the UK apparantly. I've just spent the last 10 minutes trying to photograph mine but my camera really doesn't seem to like taking pictures of water (any ideas how I can?) and he moves so fast that by the time I've got the camera right...

That's what we were advised to get when we bought it. I think it's 30g anyway...

They do actually. Someone suggested that they might be water fleas. I imagine they've been there for quite a while and I've never noticed them. The fish don't seem bothered by them though.

I've found these fish to be quite difficult to get hold of and, like a poster above, they are always very small unless they have been taken back to a fish shop by a customer. When they're small they tend to grow very quickly to begin with and it doesn't take long before bristles start to grow on...

You're probably right - he's there now watching the bubbles with his face right up against them, I still don't know what he can see outside the tank though... perhaps the cables from the thermostat and the pump... Glad to know everyone thinks this is normal though, I was a bit worried about his...

Yeah the cucumber was fine, I noticed the little green things in the rocks as well but I hadn't seen them before the cucumber was put in - they were more visible against the light colour. :/

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place but... I just put a slice of cucumber in my tank for my bristlenose plec to nibble on (his first piece!) and, while he was ignoring it, something else wasn't. I came back a few minutes later to find around 20 little green specs on the cucumber...

Thanks for the advice. The fish shop I use has always been very helpful and they said this one should be fine - it's a rhinocerous or something? We have a fast flowing pump and an extra bubble generator thing so the water is very fast flowing. Jake seems to like playing with the bubbles. So far...